TeamResearch News

Effect of Diversity on Teams is Complex

From 1997-2002, 63 studies of business teams were published on the tangible effects of diversity on team performance. Three researchers reviewed these studies to see what we've learned, and found some patterns you might find disappointing:

The only type of diversity that clearly improved team performance (as measured through financial indicators or manager/member ratings) was "functional/occupational diversity."
Racial or ethnic diversity was more often found to hurt performance then help it.
Diversity did not appear to directly hurt group processes such as conflict or cooperation, however.
The results regarding gender, age, national, and personality diversity were too mixed to draw any firm conclusions.
The affect of diversity on team members' liking for each other is not yet clear, but doesn't seem as bad as some theorists expected (psychologists say people generally prefer those who are similar to themselves).
There has been very little research into the effects:

of status/level and skill diversity on team performance.
of team diversity on team members' pay, individual performance, etc.
that leaders can have on performance of diverse teams.
that diversity has on other measures, such as knowledge flow.

The authors suggested some other applications of their research for managers:

Because of the power of peer pressure on attitudes toward people of other groups, "Training teams to manage and leverage their own diversity may prove more effective than training individuals."
"…(M)anaging diversity effectively often requires pervasive changes in organizational policies, practices, and cultures."
Key focal points of effective diversity training include:

"Learning about the other group(s)" to eliminate inaccurate stereotypes.
"Behavioral changes"—training on skills needed to interact with diverse others.
"Creating positive emotions associated with the outgroup" through, for example, informal mentoring programs pairing individuals from different backgrounds.
Gaining "new insight about their own ingroup," showing that one culture's approach is only one of many possibilities.
Social sanctions: "Diversity programs were…more successful in organizations that required managers to attend training programs and tied compensation and other rewards for success in meeting goals for recruiting, hiring, developing, and promoting people from diverse backgrounds."

Source: Jackson, S., A. Joshi, and N. Erhardt (03), "Recent Research on Team and Organizational Diversity: SWOT Analysis and Implications," Journal of Management 29(6):801.

TeamResearch News summarizes the latest information from studies or expert articles on business teams. It is published as a free service of TeamTrainers Consulting.